Taper roll, what can be done?
- Thread starter mrjobe
- Start date
Several CueTechs here, including me, have had some success straightening shafts. What part of the country are you in?
Gary
We can start by calling it what it is, a warp in the shaft.
Of all the shafts that roll funny, 1 out of 100 will be true taper-roll.
If a shaft leaves the factory straight it can not acquire a taper-roll, it can only warp.
Taper-roll is a condition that happens when the shaft is machined incorrectly.
It's there from day-1. Not many will intentionally let a taper-roll shaft leave their shop.
Since your shaft is warped, straighten it.
HTHs, KJ
Hi,
I agree with KJ 100 % concerning warp.
However I have spent a lot of time experimenting and observing shaft tapering and here are the results of my observations no so much in answering the OPs question directly but trying to share my experience with other CMs. Again JMO.
There are cues that roll straight ( no tip bobbing ) on the pool table but you can see the profile between the taper contour and the flat of that table change slightly with rolling. People refer to this as air under the shaft changing.
This condition commonly called taper roll is cause by two things in my opinion. If you roll a cue on the rail and observe the joint elevation go up and down, one can further evaluate what is going on beyond that.
The two things are Too much tail stock pressure while taper turning or too much sanding of the shaft where it becomes pancaked or elliptical in cross section is what I feel are root causes.
I have a dedicated saw machine for tapering my shafts and had noticed some of my shafts at final taper size were spinning dead perfect between centers at 1500 rpm and even higher, while some of my shafts had a slight blurr in the center area.
Each shaft is unique to itself with reference to many factors both distribution of density and horticulturally. The density of that shaft which I feel is the number one factor in shaft collating is paramount IMO.
My friend Stu has near 50 years in the cue biz and hangs out at my shop 3 days a week for lunch. He has made a ton of shafts and when I was turning shafts a few years ago he remarks that I was not using all of my Senses and that he can tell my tail stock pressure needed to be slacked off a tad by the sound.
I made an adjustment and I found out that if I listened that there were two things going on.
When the tail stock pressure is just slightly too much the shaft bounces when it is cutting the center area of the taper geometry. You can hear the oscillating sound which we are a familiar with. Even when you have the tail stock perfect which is so light that you would think it is too light to work, you can still hear a slight oscillation sound in maple. This oscillation sound at this point is not the sound of a bouncing taper turn but is the sound of hearing the difference in the grain pattern cross section on the shaft while rotating. It is not as pronounced as the oscillation you hear with too much tail stock pressure however. I figured this out while turning my butts on my butt saw machine. When the cue was turning and I was taking a very slight cut near final, the cue would have a very smooth lower pitched sound on ebony ( without a pronounced grain ) of the butt sleeve and forearm. When the saw hits the maple handle the oscillating sound occurs because of the exposure of the different grain on the rod but there is no bouncing going on.
So my point is under the sound of the higher pitched oscillation on the shafts there is a a lower pitched sound of the teeth hitting the wood which sounds like a very even high speed ratcheting sound which I feel is the detailed telltale that indicates the right balance between tail stock pressure, rotational rpm and travel rate.
I no longer have some shafts that blur between centers or show any air difference under the shaft on the table form time to time.
Again, JMO, for what it is worth.
Rick
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Someone might have HAND sanded that down to 12MM . They come stock at 13.25MM.
That's a lot to sand.
Your shaft is what it is now. Stop thinking about the "roll".
If you like 12MM "pro-taper", don't expect perfect roll that much.
That shaft should have been turned down on a taper machine 1/4MM off a time , and a few weeks or months in between cuts if possible.
That describes it 100%, the 14" of "12mm" is pretty good, seems to be more notable where the shaft starts to increas in dia.
Again, both tip and joint roll flat to the table. Th cue rolls prety much the same together or apart.
I'll roll it on the rail and see if that changes anything.
The cue shoots very well and its not that I'm "unhappy" with it. Just wondered what could be done.
